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United Iraqi Alliance

From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.

The United Iraqi Alliance is one of the electoral coalitions that participated in the January 30, 2005, National Assembly election in Iraq.

The alliance is made up of mainstream Shi'a Islamic religious parties in the Iraqi Interim Government, liberal secularists, nuclear physicist Hussain Shahristani, some independent Sunni representatives and representatives of the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, a leader of disaffected Shi'a who is suspected by American occupational authorities of having ordered the 2003 murder of Ayatollah Abd al-Majid al-Khoi. The coalition is generally believed to be supported by senior Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most widely respected religious figure in Iraq, and although the Ayatollah has offered no official endorsement, many in the Iraqi public refer to the UIA as "al-Sistani's list."

Of over 8.46 million votes cast, the UIA received the preponderance at 4.08 million (48.1%), which gives the bloc 140 seats on Iraq's 275-seat National Assembly. Of the 140 seats the UIA garnered, 42 will go to women. In total, 86 women will hold seats in the new Iraqi parliament, which is the highest number in all of the Arab world.

Many members of the Alliance, including Ibrahim al-Jaafari who leads the Islamic Al-Da'wa Party and has emerged as the front-runner to become Iraq's Prime Minister, lived in exile in Iran. In 1980, a campaign to stop the Al-Da'wa Party's attempts to overthrow Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party regime and establish an Islamic government was waged, and thousands of Al-Da'wa Party supporters were imprisoned or executed. The Iranian regime, which had ousted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, was sympathetic to the Al-Da'wa Party's plight, and allowed members of Al-Da'wa to go in to exile in Iran. The strong ties the Alliance has to Iran, which is considered part of the Axis of Evil – a term coined by the President of the United States George W. Bush to describe alleged state-sponsors of terrorism – is troubling to some; however, President George W. Bush has expressed hope and offered the candidates and the Iraqi people a congratulatory message (http://www.boston.com/dailynews/045/wash/Bush_congratulates_Iraqi_candi:.shtml).

In early March 2005, the Iraqi Turkmen Front agreed to join the UIA's caucus in the National Assembly according to Zaman Online (http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&hn=17200). In return, Sistani reportedly pledged support for the recognition of Iraqi Turkmens as a national minority.

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